CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Jess Lambert spent her Sundays as a child at church.
"My family went to mass on the weekends. But it was my grandmother that had a big influence on me," Lambert recalls.
Lambert graduated from high school in Elmhurst and attended the University of Illinois. It was there, she said, she realized she might want to change her life's path.
"I was an engineering and math major. I always knew I wanted to change the world. During my time in college, I felt my heart being drawn to service," she said. "I didn't expect to be a sister though, because the only sisters I saw were in the movies, 'Sister Act' and in the 'Sound of Music' and she doesn't even become a sister. I wasn't intending on doing this ever."
After spending a year in the corporate world, she decided to make the change.
"It's very akin to a wedding ceremony. There is a mass and during that, they'll stand up and ask me if I'm ready to commit my life and I'll say yes. There's also a special part that is similar to an ordination and I'll lay down and they'll pray over me," she said.
Lambert said she definitely had second thoughts about her choice to join the church, but is excited for the future.
Lambert lives with 10 other sisters in a West Humboldt Park convent.
Mission Our Lady of the Angels provides community outreach, after school and senior programs, and a weekly food pantry, that serves 1,000 families a month.